Huawei has just dropped its latest smartphone release, the Pocket 2, and it breaks a few milestones. As well as being Huawei’s first foldable device equipped with the company’s self-developed Kirin 9000s microchip, it is also the first in the entire industry to support messaging via China’s BeiDou satellite system, making communication in low signal areas much easier.
The sleek device, which landed on shelves on February 22, comes almost a year and a half after its first iteration. Aside from Huawei’s Kirin 9000s chipset, the Pocket 2 boasts a 7nm processor, a 6.94-inch foldable OLED screen with 2,690 x 1,136 pixels of resolution, and four cameras on its cover. The standard 256GB model will set consumers back 7,499 RMB (1,042 USD), while customised editions can go as high as 10,999 RMB (1528 USD).
The brand uploaded a 1-hour recording of the product launch press conference to its Weibo, China’s Twitter-like platform. According to data presented by the CEO of Huawei Consumer Business Group, Yu Chengdong, Huawei holds 51.2% market share and ranks top in customer satisfaction in China’s foldable phone market.
One of Yu’s claims during the conference even enjoyed a viral moment on Weibo. The hashtag “Yu Chengdong says Pocket 2 is as flat as a candy bar” (#余承东称华为小折叠像直板机一样平整#) amassed 32 million views, referencing the slim phone with rounded edges popularised by Nokia in the 2000s. Key Opinion Leader Li Jieling also praised this feature, writing “The crease can hardly be noticed when the screen is on…I don’t think Yu is just talking up a big game”. This feat owes to the phone’s Xuanwu water-drop hinge, which increases its flatness by 62%.
Foldable phones represent a promising growth sector in China. Despite the overall drop in smartphone shipments to China in 2023, foldable phones saw a significant uptick, soaring 114% year-on-year to reach 7.01 million units.
